“It’s time to deconstruct”

Two thousand years ago, Vitruvius handed down to us the three universal principles of architecture: beauty (Venustas, in Latin), strength (firmitas) and utility (utilitas). Today it is the PIETRA KODE collection by Cosentino that has recodified them and gives them a new meaning through three ancient stones: Vicenza, Travertino and Ceppo. Two thousand years later, they have become high-performance, versatile surfaces adapted to modern design, where beauty and functionality coexist.

For the global launch of this new Cosentino collection, we created an international campaign for over 30 countries. This is our first project for the brand after winning an international competition. With the theme ‘It’s time to deconstruct’, we have designed a campaign whose concept is found in the present but with an eye on both the past and the future. “We live in a society in which a number of values have become obsolete. Often, it is neither the essence nor the content that has become outdated, it is the shape form. That is why this campaign aims to use deconstruction as a tool to change the future. We started with the classic values of Vitruvius to rebuild them with Cosentino materials“, says Pablo Mendoza, the creative director leading the campaign. 

The classic stone on which the collection is based connects us to the spaces inhabited by our ancestors. They stir in us a shared code of beauty, which has evolved over the centuries and forms a link between classicism and modernity. Who is not left awestruck at the sight of the Palladian mansions of Vicenza, or the thermal baths of Villa Adriana? Or the avant-garde, Travertine-clad Getty Museum in Los Angeles? Are these values current, then? “You don’t necessarily have to do away with what has gone before, you just have to revise it. That’s why the process of creating the campaign was full of questions and analysis which we also want the people and designers who see it to ask themselves: Are these values still valid today? Is the beauty that lifted the spirit of the classics the same beauty we surround ourselves with today? And what about utility? Is it not more associated with sustainability and functionality? If we stop to consider strength, structures that still stand two thousand years later must be kept in mind, and to improve them even. This is precisely what Dekton achieves when it manufactures high-performance surfaces today that are designed to last, and thus protect our environment,” adds Pablo Mendoza.

Behind every construction there is a designer, and this campaign is no exception. We collaborated with the recently founded Blanco Void studio, with Gonzalo Miranda at the helm, who were commissioned to breathe life into this digital art gallery that coexists with the Pietra Kode materials: “Our goal is to create audiovisual pieces, spaces and objects that transcend the digital, both for brands and on our own behalf. When this proposal landed on our desk, we saw a great opportunity to create something unique for a leading brand in the sector where nothing like it had ever been done before. It has been a demanding project where we have had to use extreme precision with the materials and their tones in order to represent the new product range as it deserves,” says Gonzalo Miranda. Blanco Void operates internationally from Madrid, creating objects, spaces and leading projects for brands specialising in interior and product design.

The campaign was launched globally on 1 February 2023 with a one-minute video centrepiece translated into more than fifteen languages, a teaser and various adaptations, social media content, a display, web design, a digital catalogue and a presence in showrooms around the world.